I honestly don't know where to start. We haven't even been here for 24 hours and I feel changed.
We landed in Port Au Prince yesterday late in the afternoon. We were very happy after a loooong day of travel and some maintenance issues with our last plane. The airport was crowded and there was no real structure of claiming your bag... You just kinda search the floors and go. We walked outside and as soon as we stepped out onto the sidewalk we were greeted by my friend, Ben, and a group from Restore Haiti. It was so good to see familiar faces. After the hugs and hellos we walked to the van. On the way an older man grabbed me by the arm and started speaking to me in Creole. When he saw that I did not understand him, he said, "How are you?" and I replied, "I'm great. How are you?"... he looked at me and smiled the biggest kind of smile and said "I'm okay. I'm just so happy you're here. Thank you." Then he walked away.
The trip from Port Au Prince to Jacmel is a 3 hour drive up a steep mountain. The traffic here is crazy. Lots of tap-tap buses. Tap-taps are Haiti's public transportation system. They are basically pick up trucks with rails on the side. They pile 20 people or so in (it's a tight fit...) and the people tap the truck when they want off.
There are no driving rules here... the main goal is just to get to where your going without hitting something. Oh, and don't stick your hand out the window. The roads are very narrow and cars passing are only inches away from you. For the first 45 minutes or so I was on the edge of my seat as vans and tap-taps squeezed by us.
Today is Easter. While I miss my family, I'm so so so glad to be here today. Church lasted about 3 hours and we spent an hour before hand running around with the kids. That was my favorite part. They take you into the kids' tent and they just mob you. They want to hold your hand, your arm, give you a hug and say "My name is..." or "Jesus loves you." We ran around outside and taught them how to play duck, duck, goose. In Creole it is Cannar, Cannar, Zwa. We blew bubbles, flew kites and carried them around. The language barrier makes me want to learn Creole so badly. At least I know how to say Hello and thank you (Thank you French class.) And I felt so blessed to be apart of Worship this morning.
After church we went to the ocean and saw Pastor Lafleur baptize a dozen people. While standing at the beach Pastor looked at me and said, "Sing, Callie." so... I sang. We prayed for people. I'm shocked at how welcoming people are. They want help so badly.
Words don't even come close to describing what Haiti is right now. A t.v. screen can't capture it... and even my brain is having trouble wrapping around the idea of how poor and hurt this country is. All I know is that God loves us. He loves all of us. He loves that little old man standing outside of the airport and loves each of the children's hands that I got to hold this morning.
A little girl, Mikayla, stuck by me all morning. She was probably 5 or 6 years old. She held my hand for hours. Every once in a while she would pull up my hand next to her face and look at my ring. I love my ring. It's from an antique shop in Franklin, TN. God told me to give her that ring. I'm not going to lie, I hesitated. Like I said, I like that ring, but God kept insisting. So the next time she pulled my hand up to her face I let go of her hand. Pulled off my ring. I grabbed her hand and slipped it onto her tiny little finger. Her face LIT UP! She held out her hand admiring it and then tried to give it back. When I told her no, she smiled a big smile. She held on to that ring for dear life, keeping her thumb in place so she could know that it was still there. Jesus loves you, girl.
I feel so thankful. I'm so glad that God made this possible. This week is going to fly by. Man, there are some cool people in this world.
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